Seven card stud poker has been played for many years. Each player receives seven cards and makes the best five card poker hand from these seven cards. The ranking of poker hands in seven card stud uses conventional poker hand rankings: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and Highest Card.
Poker games using community cards have also been played for many years. These games generally fall into the family of games known as "Spit-in-the-Ocean" games. In these games each player is dealt one or more cards and the rest of the player's hand comes from community cards available to all players.
Perhaps the most popular community card game is Texas Hold-Em because of the large number of players who can play at one time and the fast action and large pots that are generated. The game is fast because only two cards are dealt to each player, with the remaining cards being dealt to a "flop" which forms the community cards from which each player makes up the rest of his hand. Each hand, however, has a single set of community cards which all players use as part of their poker hand. Therefore, the winning hand comes from that player whose two cards best fit with the community cards.
There are also many casino games which add to the conventional game an additional side bet so that a player can be eligible for a large jackpot. In CARIBBEAN STUD.RTM. Poker, a player can make a separate side bet wager to be eligible for special payouts. If the player has made the side bet wager and is dealt a Royal Flush, the player wins 100% of a progressive jackpot amount. This side bet feature is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,041, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein. As described in this '041 patent, this side bet feature can also be applied to Twenty-One, conventional Draw Poker and other casino games.
In live poker room gaming, a plurality of players compete against one another. The house or game operator provides a dealer, the cards and a table to play the game. Typically, a small percentage of each pot (the "rake") is collected by the game operator as the fee for providing the dealer and the facilities.
Operators of live poker room gaming have used different types of inducements to encourage player participation. Besides free coffee and donuts, many operators also provide what is known as a "bad beat" jackpot. The operator makes a payment to a player who has an unusually high ranking poker hand, but loses the pot to another player with an even higher ranking poker hand.
In a typical "bad beat" jackpot situation, the operator of the poker room seeds a jackpot at some beginning level amount, say $1,000.00. The jackpot can remain as a fixed amount until won by a player or the jackpot can be a progressive amount which increases n each hour or day until won. The progressive jackpot can also increase based on the amount of play occurring at the poker table. For example, a portion of the "rake" can be used by the operator to increase the progressive amount of the "bad beat" jackpot.
In order to win the "bad beat" jackpot, a player must have a high ranking poker hand, but lose the regular game pot to another player. Typically, to be eligible for the "bad beat" jackpot, a player must have at least Aces Full of Tens (a Full House with three Aces and two Tens or better) and then lose the regular pot. Even though the player may have lost the regular pot, the player wins the "bad beat" jackpot which could be several thousand dollars. Often this "bad beat" jackpot is divided among all of the players at the table, with the player holding the "bad beat" hand winning the major portion of the jackpot.
As casino gaming proliferates throughout the United States and into foreign countries, there continues to be a need for more live casino games to attract and keep the interest of the players. In order to be successful, live casino games must be easy to play, but nevertheless exciting and should also provide the player with the opportunity to win a large payout.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a new, live casino table game that is easy to play, that will appeal to players and that offers the opportunity for a player to win a large jackpot.
It is a feature of the present invention that each player plays a seven card stud poker hand against a dealer's seven card stud poker hand. Each player and the dealer have their own five cards and two community cards are shared by each player and the dealer. Each player makes multiple wagers to continue to participate in the play of the game. If the player has a high ranking hand and still loses to the dealer, the player can win a "bad beat" payout.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the seven card stud game used in the method of play is easy to understand by most players and utilizes traditional poker hand rankings to determine winning card combinations. The use of multiple wagers during the play of the hand allows the player the opportunity to fold on poor hands and to increase his wager on better hands, thereby allowing the player to engage in money management techniques to improve his chance of winning. The "bad beat" feature also provides the player with the opportunity to win a large jackpot amount in a situation in which the player would otherwise have only a losing hand.